Upward acting sectional or single panel garage doors, rollup doors, gates, and other types of powered movable barriers utilize movable barrier opener systems for effecting control over the movement of the barriers. A typical movable barrier opener system comprises a movable barrier operator and a drive assembly, including a motor, for imparting movement to the movable barrier (e.g., the garage door). The movable barrier operator includes a controller which, typically, constitutes a programmable platform such as a microprocessor, microcontroller, or the like, that is preprogrammed with the appropriate instructions and data for carrying out the desired processing. The operation of the barrier opener system is typically controlled by either user-actuation of (i) interior or exterior building mounted consoles, in wired or wireless communication with the movable barrier operator, (ii) hand held or vehicle mounted wireless transmitters in proximate location to the movable barrier operator, and/or (iii) remote network (e.g. Internet) access devices (e.g., Smartphones).
Many movable barrier opener systems often have auxiliary lighting for various purposes. For example, in the situations involving unattended closing of a garage door, flashing indicator lights are required to warn those who may be in the path of the imminently closing garage door. Furthermore, security lights may provide illumination to the proximate area of the opener so that the opener's user's vision is not impeded by the darkness. However, these auxiliary lights not only often present inconvenience and expense due to the infrastructure necessary to provide power to them, but their inclusion often increases the size and complexity, and therefore the expense, of the circuits associated with the auxiliary lighting. Other disadvantages are related to the inconvenience of often having to carry around the light actuators typically required by existing auxiliary lighting systems.
It is therefore a principal objective of the present invention to provide a new and improved form of auxiliary lighting for a movable barrier opener system, and in particular where the movable barrier may be the residential garage door. Such improved form of auxiliary lighting should desirably be of decreased size and complexity, be so configured to reduce the infrastructure required to supply power to such lighting, and avoid other inconveniences presently associated with auxiliary lighting for garage door openers.